Spoof not so funny

The comment in the post below deserves more attention, thanks to soapboxspinster for letting us know what’s going on.

Last week, The Gazette, a student newspaper at The University of Western Ontario, published a violent, misogynist article in its “spoof” issue that, thanks to online activism and attention, is shedding light on the paper’s problematic practices.

The article, titled “Labia Majora Carnage,” is about a “Take Back The Nightie” march, trying (pretty pathetically) to poke fun at Take Back the Night marches and The Vagina Monologues, both popular forms of campus feminist activism. One particularly offensive passage goes something like this:

“Upon seeing the chaos, London Police Chief Murray Faulkner stopped greasing his nightstick and intervened. He grabbed the loudspeaker from Ostrich’s wild vagina and took it into a dark alley to teach it a lesson. To Ostrich’s dismay, the vagina followed, giggling as it said, “I love it when a man in uniform takes control.”

As soapboxspinster points out, there are more non-violent, more intelligent ways to make fun of feminists (Steven Colbert’s “Cooking With Feminists,” anyone?).

Here’s a rabble.ca piece that gives the context and some contacts for responding to the Gazette. Soapboxspinster’s blog post and the article are here, and provides some important background information.